Timberwolves fans were stunned on Wednesday, Sep. 22 when Director of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas was relieved from his position, just two years into the job. This came after what many would consider a successful period for the ball club, partially due to the selection of Anthony Edwards in the 2020 NBA Draft who was a close contender for the rookie of the year award that eventually went to Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball last year.

Nonetheless, this decision was a shocking one at first glance, especially to the Timberwolves’ star player Karl-Anthony Towns who voiced his opinion minutes after the news broke in a tweet that read simply, “wtf…” But as news continued to flow around the NBA world, it later broke that Rosas was actually fired for a multitude of reasons ranging from poor returns on evaluations by new owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore to being caught in a consensual sexual relationship with his coworker, while currently married to another woman.

Now, this is surely not what Timberwolves fans expected to see as the reason for Rosas’ departure and it seems as though Rosas never even thought to hide the relationship. The man was caught red-handed, lip-to-lip with his assistant in public, at the Minnesota United game against the LA Galaxy on Sep. 18. Not a good move by Rosas and this was just one of the things that landed him in hot water with the new ownership regime.

According to sources, Rosas also had a fallout with some other of the staff members on his team, including the new President of Basketball Operations Sachin Gupta, which created a bad environment in the front office. These reports state that a few staffers in the Minnesota front office were not comfortable with the decision-making from Rosas and thought that he often ignored consultations with others in the organization.

One staffer said, “I knew it was when, not if. The Gersson regime was not it.”

All of this culminated on the 22nd when Rosas was given the boot but the new ownership has been adamant that this move has been a long time coming rather than just being based on the inappropriate relationship between Rosas and his coworker. It does seem as though the Timberwolves wanted to move in a new direction for the President position as some viewed Rosas too timid on the trade front, an area which the team wants to explore in the future according to sources close to the team.

Sachin Gupta, the former VP of Basketball Operations, has now taken over the position of president although according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the Timberwolves are continuing to look for a more permanent replacement. It was in fact the Gupta-Rosas quarrels which partially got Rosas into hot water in the first place, with some reports saying that Gupta was barred from the Timberwolves facility by Rosas himself after a fallout just weeks prior to his firing.

According to reports, the friction spread through the rest of the front office, as well as Rosas, rarely spent time with other members of the organization. Back in July, the Timberwolves co-hosted a predraft workout where all 30 NBA team representatives were present, except Rosas was not with any of his own staff. Rather he stayed on the opposite side of the facility for the entire event and did not communicate with his cohorts from the Timberwolves.

“Rosas and his team couldn’t have been farther apart. It was extremely evident there was tension. It was really almost uncomfortable,” said an anonymous Eastern Conference executive.

Even with the respect of some players and fans on his side, Rosas dug a hole too deep to get out of. The move itself was surprising at first glance, especially for Minnesota sports fans who have liked the moves for D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards over the past couple of years but after all the new information came out over the following days, it’s not surprising a man like this got the boot.